What distinguishes this form of art from all the other manifestations of art is that it is first of all a form of conscious art. The initiate artist has a very clear intention in terms of the purpose of his work, knows exactly what result he will achieve and what effect his work will have upon those who contemplate it with openness.
This does not mean, however, that he eliminates the attempts and experimentations, or that he does not take into account the revelations which naturally occur during the creative process.

Being aware means that the artist remains constant in the pursuit of the originally intended goal and wants to create and perfect his work until it reaches the appropriate conceptual idea from which it started.

This requires a double initiation:
– an initiation in artistic craftsmanship
– an initiation in the knowledge of the mysteries of life and the Universe

It is, therefore, on one hand, an aesthetic initiation, one that leads to artistic craftsmanship and, on the other hand, a spiritual initiation. A complete artwork has both; spiritual initiation is not enough in itself, just as artistic skill and talent alone are not enough if we want to reach the level of a masterpiece in our creation.

Awakening of spiritual aspiration

Initiatory art is always a deliberately revealing art. It seeks to bring to light mysteries, truths that usually remain hidden in the perceptual possibilities of most people, truths discovered and lived by the artist in his spiritual experiences and explorations.

Such works of art infuse the being of the receiver with elevated thoughts and emotions, high states of consciousness that lead to his inner enrichment and awaken the aspiration for self-knowledge, self-development, attaining high values and inner achievement. Thus, initiatic art is the art that awakens spiritual aspiration. Awakens the soul.

Art as a sacred act

In ancient times art was considered a sacred act by which conscious activation of primordial forces was sought. Like the ritual dances and performances in the Orient, the music that could influence nature.

The story of Orpheus is not just a myth, it is a reality. When the artist is in resonance with the Universe, Life gives signs to him, answers to him and things happen that ordinary people call miracles.

In the ancient tragedy, the actors wore masks just to express different archetypes through their characters, not their limited human personality. The choir embodied the witness, the detached consciousness interpreting from the perspective of divine laws all that was happening in the story.

This clearly shows that in ancient times art was not a game of the ego, but a continuation of the Divine Play and Mystery through the artist.

One of Plato’s famous dialogues speaks of the human creator as a flute which the gods play. And this is not a poetic metaphor, it is the way the ancients understood and lived the state of inspiration. The artist was an officiant of the Cosmic Play, a priest of Divine Beauty, Good and Harmony.

Contemporary crisis of values

With time, however, the perspective has degraded. The artist’s personal drama has become more important than the Cosmic Play in which we are all actors. The artist has lost the sense of the sacred, therefore he has lost the inspiration and the spiritual dimension of the message.

Some of the authentic creators, having a higher level of consciousness than most people, even without receiving a spiritual initiation and permanent guidance on the path of inner perfection, were seriously concerned with the existential problems as they were animated by a sincere aspiration to understand the deep meaning of life.

In the first phase, the creation of such artists is a form of search and an effort to obtain self-knowledge. Some of them, at a certain stage of their life, came to an intuitive knowledge about the mysteries of the Universe; thus their works acquired the features of the initiatic, revelatory art, which inspires to spiritual evolution.

Some of them have even got to the stage where they realized the vain nature of earthly ambitions, they recognized the ephemeral and illusory nature of the world.

Without a spiritual path and practice, however, without a spiritual initiation in art, one cannot come to the intuition of the essence beyond the illusory.  That’s why their state as individuals can only generate a fluctuating art of contrasts, with accents of disharmony, which the initiated artists do not even regard as authentic art, but only pseudo-art.

Constantin Brâncuşi, the Romanian sculptor who brought back archetypes and sacred symbols in modern art, said:

“Art has to bring closer, not to set apart, has to fulfill, not to dig precipices in our poor spirits already tortured by the questions.
Art has to heal and soothe the contradictions of man. These contradictions derive from his own very destiny and tragedy. Art also has this therapeutic mission: Let us only remember the Aristotelian catharsis. “